The former co-president of The League of Women Voters of Kansas says a state law requiring prospective voters to prove they are U.S. citizens devastated the organization’s registration efforts. Margaret Ahrens of Topeka testified in the second day of a lawsuit over whether Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has the authority to implement the law’s requirements. She said the League stopped taking voter registrations immediately after the law took effect in 2013 because it didn’t want liability for handling voters’ personal information, such as birth certificates and passports. [node:read-more:link]

Canada's National Energy Board has approved Hydro-Quebec's application to construct an international transmission line to New Hampshire as part of the disputed Northern Pass transmission project. In January, Massachusetts selected Northern Pass to help the state meet its clean energy goals, but the project was rejected unanimously by the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee the following month. [node:read-more:link]

Perdue Foods and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) have reached an agreement in which Perdue will pay an administrative penalty of $77,300 and an associated $7,601 assessment for expenses associated with the DNREC’s investigation into the company’s violations of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. [node:read-more:link]

After years of preparation, McDonald's is ready to serve fresh, cooked-to-order beef in many of its burgers, backed by what promises to be a lot of marketing. It's the latest signal the world's largest restaurant chain is responding to what customers want. The Golden Arches is gearing up for the national debut of fresh (as opposed to frozen) quarter-pound beef patties, which comes one year after McDonald's announced its "hot off the grill" plans and four years since the world's largest restaurant began working on it. Fresh quarter-pound patties are now in about 3,500 U.S. [node:read-more:link]

If you live in a city or county that sues oil companies over climate change, prepare for a blowback. ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel giants are taking legal action against such local governments, seeking to undermine a key part of their finances — their relationship with lenders. Exxon’s target is several California cities and counties that have filed state lawsuits, claiming the oil and coal industries worked for decades to cover up their role in climate change and the consequences. [node:read-more:link]

A tax credit that’s helped motivate many fiscally conscious Iowa farmers to install solar panels would see an early demise under a sweeping tax reform bill that cleared a major legislative hurdle. Iowa is the only state in the Midwest and one of just a dozen nationally that still offers a state solar tax credit. The Iowa Legislature created the 15 percent tax credit in 2012. Since then it’s provided a total of $21.6 million in incentives for nearly 4,000 projects. [node:read-more:link]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development confirmed that it is considering removing language about anti-discrimination efforts from its mission statement.  The agency confirmed that a leaked draft of the new mission statement reads "HUD’s mission is to ensure Americans have access to fair, affordable housing and opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency, thereby strengthening our communities and nation." [node:read-more:link]

The federal agency charged with processing immigration applications to the United States slashed the phrase “nation of immigrants” from its mission statement. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director L. Francis Cissna announced the agency’s new mission statement in a staff-wide email. “U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Nearly 50,000 Iowa jobs are supported by biofuels production. In addition, the biofuels industry boosts household income for Iowans by more than $2.4 billion and accounted for $5.0 billion, or 3.4%, of Iowa GDP. [node:read-more:link]

On Sunday, March 4, the California Independent System Operator saw an all-time peak percentage of demand served by solar, hitting a record 49.95 percent. [node:read-more:link]